FRINGE SCIENCE

Ah Yes, We Remember It Well...

Gosh, it seems like only yesterday that the Science and Entertainment Exchange officially launched with an exclusive, invitation-only symposium at the Creative Artists Agency. But it was actually last November when over 300 writers, directors, producers, production designers, and executives, along with scientists, engineers and health professionals, convened to hear about the latest cutting-edge research in rare and infectious diseases, climate change, cosmology and astronomy, genomics, brain and mind (neuroscience), and robotics/artificial intelligence.

The all-star line-up of scientists included Steven Chu, recently nominated as US Secretary of Energy; Craig Venter, a geneticist who led the private effort to sequence the human genome; microbiologist Bonnie Bassler; neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran; Rodney Brooks, chief technical officer of Heartland Robotics and a founder of iRobot, which gave the world Roomba, the first robotic vacuum cleaner; and astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and frequent guest on The Colbert Report.

Good times! For those who couldn't be there -- or those who were, and are feeling a tad nostalgic -- the Exchange now has a shiny new YouTube video showcasing some of the highlights from the launch event. See how many faces and names you recognize, from both science and entertainment!